Golf practice device

ABSTRACT

The invention is concerned with a device for practicing and improving a golf swing. Its most advantageously used when practicing with a wood or iron rather than with a putter. The device features two walls with an alley in between them, the alley having an artificial turf-like material thereon. The separation of the walls is adjustable so that the walls can be brought closer together as the golfer&#39;&#39;s swing improves. At least the wall closest to the golfer may be rotated to form different angles with the artificial turf. The angle can be adjusted to suit the size of the golfer and the particular golf club being used, and also to enable the golfer to establish a standard distance between himself and the ball. The bottom surface of the device includes two rotatably attached spikes for anchoring the device in the ground. The spikes may be rotated relative the bottom surface and fitted into depressions which include constrictions for holding the spikes in storage positions.

United States Patent [191 Previte, Jr.

[451 Aug. 21, 1973 GOLF PRACTICE DEVICE [76] Inventor: John R. Previte,Jr., 1793 Curtner Ave., San Jose, Calif. 95124 [22] Filed: Aug. 17, 1972[21] Appl. No.: 281,584

[52] US. Cl. 273/186 C, 273/195 A, 273/195 B Primary ExaminerGe0rge J.Marlo Attorney-Hubert E. Dubb et al.

57 ABSTRACT The invention is concerned with a device for practicing andimproving a golf swing. Its most advantageously used when practicingwith a wood or iron rather than with a putter. The device features twowalls with an alley in between them, the alley having an artificialturf-like material thereon. The separation of the walls is adjustable sothat the walls can be brought closer together as the golfers swingimproves. At least the wall closest to the golfer may be rotated to formdifferent angles with the artificial turf. The angle can be adjusted tosuit the size of the golfer and the particular golf club being used, andalso to enable the golfer to establish a standard distance betweenhimself and the ball. The bottom surface of the device includes tworotatably attached spikes for anchoring the device in the ground. Thespikes may be rotated relative the bottom surface and fitted intodepressions which include constrictions for holding the spikes instorage positions.

10 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures Patented Aug. 21, 1973 2 Sheets-Sheet lFIG.I

FIG. 2

Pmmd Aug. 21, 1973 3,753,563

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 3

FIG.4

1 GOLF PRACTICE DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION PRIOR ART The priorart shows a number of devices useful for improving the driving game of agolfer. In particular, the following prior art patents are of interest.

U. S. Pat. No. 3,107,920 discloses a golf practice device for use incombination with a brush mat. A number of the devices are inserted intothe brush mat to form, for example, a straight pathway. When one of thedevices is struck by a golf club, the top portion thereof is forced intoa down position thereby showing the golfer the direction in which hisswing may have deviated from a desired path.

U. S. Pat. No. 3,194,565 discloses a device comprising a series of bellspositioned behind deflectable shields, the shields forming a straightpathway.

U. S. Pat. No. 3,246,898 discloses a golf swing trainer which utilizes asimulated golf club swingable between two walls mounted parallel to eachother and at right angles to a board which forms the base of a device.The walls each are substantially inverted Ls in cross section. One ofthe walls is slideably attached to the board whereby separation of thewalls from one another can be adjusted.

U. S. Pat. No. 3,482,838 discloses a golf swing training device whereintwo bars are placed substantially parallel to each other above a flatboard. A golf ball is placed between the two bars which rise sharply asthey approach the front of the board.

U. S. Pat. No. 3,586,335 discloses a golf practice de-' vice having anartificial turf portion wherein a golf ball can be driven between twostationary parallel upstanding walls.

A golfer most desirably must groove his swing, including the backswing,and the followthrough along a substantially planer path. It is customaryfor golfers to practice their swings at driving ranges and the like formany hours to try to perfect the exactitude of their swing.

As has been set out above, a number of prior art device have beenadvanced for improving the swing of a golfer. While all of these devicesare useful to some extent, none of them provide all of the advantages ofthe present invention, none of them provide for an adjustment of thedevice to make it most useful to golfers of different heights or to asingle golfer who switches from a club of one length to a club ofanother length or aid a golfer in establishing a standard distancebetween himself and the ball. Further, none of the devices whichactually utilize a golf club and a ball provide any adjustment forincreasing the difficulty of keeping the golfers swing in a planer pathas the golfers skill improves.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a golfpractice device which is adjustable for use by golfers of differentheights.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a golf practicedevice which is adjustable for use with different length clubs.

It is another object of the invention to provide a golf practice devicewhich is adjustable to aid a golfer in establishing a standard distancebetween himself and the ball.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a golf practicedevice wherein as the golfers skill increases the difficulty ofcorrectly directing a swing along the path defined by the device can beincreased.

A further object yet of the invention is to provide a golf practicedevice which will accomplish all of the above set out objects and iscollapsable for easy portability.

The golf practice device of the present invention will be betterunderstood by reference to the drawings which are incorporated herein byreference thereto.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an end view of a preferredembodiment of a device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of the preferred embodiment of the device of theinvention.

FIG. 3 is a partial bottom view of the preferred embodiment of thedevice of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a cut away view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The invention comprises a golfpractice device. The device comprises a rectangular base; an artificialturf like material attached to a portion of the top surface of saidbase; a first wall attached along a side of said rectangular base; ameans for extending the width of said base, said extending means beingdetachably attached to said base opposite the side said first wall isattached thereto; a second wall attached to said extending meansopposite the side said extending means is attached to said first wall;and a means for positioning said first wall or said second wall at adesired angle of rotation relative to said base or said extending meansrespectively.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention will bebetter understood by reference to the detailed description of thedrawings which follows.

Referring first to FIG. 1, the device of the present invention 1comprises a rectangular base 2 having positioned thereon an artificialturf-like material 3 attached thereto, for example, by a bonding orcement-like material 4. As will be apparent from FIG. 4, the rectangularbase 2 has a cavity 5 therein.

A ball 6 and a tee 7 are illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2, and 4 although it isof course understood that the device may be used without a tee. Theartificial turf like material may be attached to any stiff backing orsupport 8. The support 8 may be simply the carpet backing itself or maybe a piece of wood or metal to provide extra rigidity.

In FIG. 4, the side of the base to which a wall is attached isrepresented by 9. The first wall 10 is generally placed in upstandingposition from the side 9 of the rectangular base 2. Referring now toFIGS. 1 and 2 it will be apparent that the first wall 10 is attached tothe base 2 using the washer 11 and the wing nut 13 which pass over thethreaded shaft or bolt 12, the wing nut 13 being threaded thereon. Theshaft head 14 can be seen passing out of the end of the first wallopposite that on which the wing nut 13 is attached. It is of course onlynecessary that the shaft 12 be threaded at the en where the wing nut 13attaches.

Referring to FIG. 4, it will be seen that the first wall has a bottompositioned above an ear or extension of the first wall 16 through whichthe shaft 12 passes. The base 2 has a tunnel therethrough 17 throughwhich the shaft 12 also passes.

The extending means 20 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. It is adapted to slidewithin the cavity 5 of the rectangular base 2. Since it may be desirableto be able to reset the separation of the device at a previously usedvalue, a scale 21 is preferrably provided on the extending means 20. 1

As illustrated in FIGS. 1, 3, and 4 the rectangular base 2 and theextending means 20 each preferrably have at least one spike, 22 and 23respectively, attached to the bottom thereof. These spikes serve toanchor the device of the present invention in the ground. Referringparticularly to FIG. 3 it is seen that in the preferred embodiment ofthe invention the spikes 22 and 23 are each rotatable into the base 2and the extending means 20 respectively. In FIG. 3, the spike 22 isshown in the down position and the spike 23 is shown in the folded or upposition. Shafts 24 which fit into sockets in the base and extendingmeans are provided for rotating the spikes 22 and 23. A depression 25 isprovided in the base for accepting the spike 22 when it is rotated intothe up position. The depression 25 is shown with a constriction 26therein adapted to hold the spike 22 in the up position. A depression 27in the extending means 20 is shown to have a constriction 28 thereinwhich in FIG. 3 is holding the spike 23 in the up position. In the mostpreferred embodiment of the invention both the rectangular base 2 andthe extending means 20 will have a plurality of spikes, preferably twospikes each, therein for anchoring the device of the invention.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, the second wall is illustratedpositioned at an angle other than 90 from the extending means 20. Thewall 40 is rotatably attached to the extending means 20 utilizing thewasher 41 and the wing nut 43 attached to the threaded ended shaft 42.The threaded shaft 42 passes through a tunnel 47 in the extending means20 and at the other end of the wall 40 is held in place by the shafthead 44.

Referring to FIG. 4 the second wall 40 is illustrated as having a bottom45 and extensions 46 through which the shaft 42 passes.

FIGS. 2 and 4 show for clarity, in phantom, a golf club head and aportion of a golf club shaft. Referring in particular to FIG. 2 thegolfer would swing from right to left. For use by a left handed golferthe position of the ball and position of the movement of the golf cluband head would be reversed.

As is illustrated, in FIGS. 1, 2, and 4, both the first wall 10 and thesecond wall 40 are rotatably and removably attached from the base 2 andthe extending means 20 respectively. It is preferred that the device hemade in this manner since it can then be easily collapsed for packaging,storage, and/or transportation. It is of course understood that one ofthe walls 10 or 40 can be constructed integrally with either the base 2or the extending means 20, respectively, if desired.

The two walls 10 and 40 provide not only a planer or straight paththrough which the golf club must be swung but because of the rotatingfeature of at least one of the walls (the wall placed nearer the golfer)it is clear that the device is adjustable for golfers of differentheights, for an individual golfer using clubs of different lengths, andto aid and partially force a golfer to set himself at a standarddistance from the ball when swinging. A simple protractor may be used toreset the device at any desired angle. The rotating feature of wall 40also makes it possible to use relatively high walls. That is, wallswhich are considerably higher than the height of a golf club head. Thisis a distinct advantage since the golf club rises significantly aftercontact with the ball and might thereby avoid hitting a relatively lowwall even though the golfers swing was not correctly grooved.

While it is not illustrated in the drawings, in another embodiment ofthe invention the two walls 10 and 40 may be longer than the length ofthe rectangular base thus providing a longer path. Also, particularly onthe swing entry side, the walls 10 and 40 may be so con structed as todiverge somewhat from one another thereby providing a somewhat widenedopening for entry of the swing.

It is preferred that the device of the present invention be made out ofa hard plastic material. In order to protect woods, the hard plasticmaterial may be covered with a fabric, for example, felt or the like.

The preferred length of the device of the present invention for examplefrom the wing nut 13 to the shaft head 14 is about 10 to 12 inches. Thepreferred height of the first wall 10 is about 4% inches and thepreferred height of the second wall 40 is about 4 inches. The separationbetween the wall 10 and the wall 40 is preferrably adjustable from amaximum of about 6 inches to a minimum of about 3% inches by sliding theextending means 20 within the base 2.

The device is useful not only with golf balls on a practice range or thelike but can also be used with plastic balls in a backyard or den. It ismost advantageous to use the device with real golf balls on a drivingrange so that the golfer can attain confidence in the correlationbetween grooving his swing correctly and the direction and distanceattained by hitting an actual golf ball.

While the invention has been described in connection with specificembodiments thereof, it will be un derstood that it is capable offurther modification, and this application is intended to cover anyvariations, uses or adaptations of the invention following, in general,the principles of the invention and including such departures from thepresent disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the artto which the invention pertains and as may be applied to the essentialfeatures hereinbefore set forth, and as fall within the scope of theinvention and the limits of the appended claims.

That which is claimed is:

l. A golf practice device comprising:

a rectangular base;

an artificial turf like material attached to a portion of the topsurface of said base;

a first wall attached along a side of said rectangular base;

a means for extending the width of said base, said extending means beingdetachably attached to said base opposite the side said first wall isattached thereto;

a second wall attached to said extending means opposite the side saidextending means is attached to said first wall;

a means for positioning said first wall or said second wall at a desiredangle of rotation relative to said rectangular base or said extendingmeans respectively.

2. A device as in claim I, further characterized in that saidrectangular base has a cavity therein which communicates with one sideof said base and said extending means is adaptable to slidably fitwithin said cavity in said rectangular base.

3. A device as in claim 2, wherein said extending means is rectangular.

4. A device as in claim 1, which further comprises a plurality of meansfor anchoring said device to the ground.

5. A device as in claim 4, wherein said anchoring means comprise atleast one spike rotatably attached to the bottom of said base and atleast one spike rotatably attached to the bottom of said extendingmeans, said base and said extending means each having depressionsadapted to receive said spikes contiguous with the points of attachmentof said spikes, said spikes being rotatable to fit into saiddepressions.

6. A device as in claim 5, including means for holding said spikes insaid depressions.

7. A device as in claim 1 wherein both said first wall and said secondwall are rotatably attached to said device.

8. A device as in claim 1 wherein both said first wall and said secondwall are detachably attached to said device.

9. A device as in claim 1, including a means for indicating the distancebetween said first wall and said second wall.

10. A device as in claim 1, in combination with a ball positioned onsaid artificial turf and a golf club adapted to propel said ball whenstruck against said ball by a golfer.

1. A golf practice device comprising: a rectangular base; an artificialturf like material attached to a portion of the top surface of saidbase; a first wall attached along a side of said rectangular base; ameans for extending the width of said base, said extending means beingdetachably attached to said base opposite the side said first wall isattached thereto; a second wall attached to said extending meansopposite the side said extending means is attached to said first wall; ameans for positioning said first wall or said second wall at a desiredangle of rotation relative to said rectangular base or said extendingmeans respectively.
 2. A device as in claim 1, further characterized inthat said rectangular base has a cavity therein which communicates withone side of said base and said extending means is adaptable to slidablyfit within said cavity in said rectangular base.
 3. A device as in claim2, wherein said extending means is rectangular.
 4. A device as in claim1, which further comprises a plurality of means for anchoring saiddevice to the ground.
 5. A device as in claim 4, wherein said anchoringmeans comprise at least one spike rotatably attached to the bottom ofsaid base and at least one spike rotatably attached to the bottom ofsaid extending means, said base and said extending means each havingdepressions adapted to receive said spikes contiguous with the points ofattachment of said spikes, said spikes being rotatable to fit into saiddepressions.
 6. A device as in claim 5, including means for holding saidspikes in said depressions.
 7. A device as in claim 1 wherein both saidfirst wall and said second wall are rotatably attached to said device.8. A device as in claim 1 wherein both said first wall and said secondwall are detachably attached to said device.
 9. A device as in claim 1,including a means for indicating the distance between saiD first walland said second wall.
 10. A device as in claim 1, in combination with aball positioned on said artificial turf and a golf club adapted topropel said ball when struck against said ball by a golfer.